Unbound, p.1
Unbound, page 1
Unbound
The Underhill Saga
DeAnna Jackson
Copyright© 2022 DeAnna Jackson
All rights reserved
deannajacksonauthor.squarespace.com
Title: Unbound
Cover Art by: CJ Fernandez
ISBN: 979-8-9860692-0-3
Dedication
To my mother, this book wouldn’t exist without your love and support. Thank you for always being my anchor
To my grandmother, our time together was unfairly cut short, but you accepted me for who I was even if you didn’t understand, and you wanted me to follow my dreams. I can only hope you’re proud of me.
Chapter 1
The house knew when visitors were coming. It listened past the scampering of animals, and whispers of voices both ancient and new. The house sat in the din and waited for a different sound. Usually it was one, but sometimes it was two. This time it was three. Something new. Something strange. The house breathed and shuddered, its wooden bones creaking in the night, and awakened the one who slept within its walls.
A broom clattered to the floor. The sound resounded through the house. Alannah woke instantly. She rolled onto her side, her hands roaming across the tightly knit fabric of her blanket. The fabric was replaced by soft fur. She sunk her fingers into the fur. A small mmrp greeted her. Alannah moved closer, pressing her face into her cat’s side.
“A few more minutes,” she grumbled to the large bundle she was cuddling.
But he was having none of it.
He yawned and shifted next to her. Even in the dark, she saw him stretch his paws in front of him. His head butted against her cheek. Alannah grunted.
The house spoke and Alannah had to answer. Time to prepare for guests. Humans. She didn’t like dealing with them. They were loud and obnoxious know-it-alls. She cooked for them, cleaned after them, and—her mother always stressed this—she had to treat them with kindness. Even when they mocked her. Even when they never heeded her warnings about the forest.
Mr. Pinkus headbutted her again and Alannah sighed. “Damn cat,” she said, rolling onto her back. She was surprised her mother hadn’t come to wake her. No guests had come in months. There was much cleaning to do. And she wasn’t sure there was enough time to do everything.
It wasn’t until she was sitting on the side of the bed, her feet on the warm wooden floor, that she remembered. Her chest tightened and she drew in a shaky breath.
That’s right. It’s only me now.
The bridge of her nose began to burn as a prelude to tears. But she didn’t have time for this. With her hands curled into fists, she stood, nails digging into palms. The slight twinge of pain kept her anchored to the present. Turning back to Mr. Pinkus, she beckoned for him. “Come on. I know you’re hungry.”
He didn’t follow.
Instead, he huffed and curled back into a ball. Alannah glared at him. He didn’t acknowledge her. It was her own fault. She spent her twenty-seven years spoiling him and now he was a fat, content cat who wouldn’t even keep her company so early in the morning.
“Selfish,” she mumbled.
Dark hallway stretched out before her when she stepped out of her room. Alannah turned on the lights in the hall reflecting off of the dozens of clocks that hung along the walls. Wooden clocks, silver clocks, gold embossed clocks. All of them ticked discordantly. A sound she was long used to by now. The stairs were to her right, a few feet from her room. Past them were four rooms. Two on each side. Across from her room was her mother’s room. It had been locked up tight for a month. And it would stay that way. Behind her was her grandmother’s room. Alannah didn’t remember the last time she went into that room.
She turned on more lights as she navigated her way downstairs. The light revealed what she wished would remain hidden. Dust clung to the balustrade of the stairs. Footprints—both hers and small paw prints—were etched into the dust on the steps. The state of the dust grew worse the further down she went. A thin layer covered all of the wood surfaces. She patted one of the cushions on the couch and coughed as a cloud puffed up from the fabric. She hadn’t cleaned anything in a month. A whole month. If Alannah’s mother was alive, she would’ve been mortified at the state of the house. Grief was never a good excuse. That had been made clear when her grandmother died when Alannah was a child and her mother pushed on as if nothing had changed.
The windows slid open easily as if the house was ready to breathe in the fresh air. Alannah leaned down, her hands resting on the cushioned window seat, and stared out into early morning darkness. From her vantage point she could see the chicken coop and the goat’s shed. They were silent. It was far too early for them. Her gaze moved past that to the forest that bordered her property. The forest surrounded her on all sides. Branches reached in many directions. Up to the sky, towards each other until they intertwined, and towards her. To her the forest was foreboding. A trap closed around her ankle. But humans were lured here for the promise of a mysterious and beautiful place. A place they all believed they could solve until the forest swallowed them hole never to be seen again.
Alannah dragged herself to the kitchen. A full kettle sat on the stove. She turned on the heat and selected a mug—sage green with a superficial crack down the side—from the shelf above. The porcelain was cool in her hands. She set it down on the wooden counter. While waiting for the water to boil, Alannah pulled her dark brown hair back from her face and braided it. The last thing she needed was her hair getting in the way while she cleaned.
She yawned.
The house didn’t have to wake her so early. Cleaning wouldn’t take her that long. The kettle whistled and Alannah pulled it off the stove.
Tiny footsteps pattered against the tile floor. She snorted. “See. I knew you would be hungry.”
Mr. Pinkus’ tail swatted her ankles as he weaved between her legs. He was nothing if not predictable. Alannah dropped a teabag in her cup and stepped carefully towards the fridge to avoid tripping over him. A plate sat inside with shredded chicken and cold mushy carrots from her dinner the night before.
With the plate in her hand, she looked down. “Do you want me to heat it or—”
His paw tapped her shin.
“I guess not.”
Alannah set the plate down on the floor. She watched him, raising the hot cup to her lips, and wished she could be a cat. Or any creature that could eat and sleep and do little else. It would be easier. With a sigh, she set her cup back down on the counter. This place won’t clean itself.
Simple tasks of dusting and sweeping turned into scrubbing the baseboards on her hands and knees and stripping all the beds of their linens while dust made her sneeze uncontrollably. She tottered down the stairs with the mound of laundry, barely able to see past it, and dumped it in the giant metal tub in the washroom. The breath wheezed out of her but there was so much more to do. Alannah cleaned nose prints off the glass from Mr. Pinkus, scrubbed the bathrooms until they sparkled, and mopped every square inch of floor. Even with the open windows, the house smelled overwhelmingly of lemons.
The house was correct in waking her early.
Gentle rays of sun peeked through the trees as she hung bedsheets on the clothesline. Pink clouds drifted through an endless sea of blue. Sweat dripped from her temples and instantly cooled in the morning breeze. Alannah closed her eyes, letting it ruffle the wisps of hair that had pulled free from her braid. She didn’t realize how consuming it would be to have to do all this by herself. Maybe I should stop allowing people to come here. They could get lost and stay somewhere else. Or maybe, if she scared them enough, they would stop coming into the forest.
She picked up the empty basket and walked across the dewy grass to the porch. Leaving the basket on the porch, she walked back into the house. Sunlight brightened the rooms. Alannah turned off lights as she moved upstairs to put fresh sheets on the beds. The final touch. If she had missed anything, it was far too late.
The house had a way of knowing when company was coming and that feeling passed to Alannah. Whoever was coming, they were close. The house was poised and ready to accept them, but she was not.
Alannah drifted back to the kitchen. Her cup of tea was still sitting on the counter having grown cold. She took a sip and grimaced. Bitterness lingered on her tongue. She held the cup over the sink and overturned it. Amber liquid swirled around the white basin before going down the drain. How apt. She set the cup into the sink.
It was time for her to get ready. She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t put if off any longer. People were coming whether she liked it or not.
Mr. Pinkus was curled up underneath the windows, the forest green cushion covered in pieces of orange fur. Of course. There was no point in fixing it. He would roll around on it again with a smug look on his face. Alannah leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “Thank you for the help.” Her sarcasm was lost on the cat as he purred in response and tucked his paws around his nose. She left him there.
The warm water of the shower relaxed her and she eyed her bed longingly as she dressed in soft brown cotton pants that reached her ankles and a deep purple tunic with quarter sleeves. The sweet scent of lavender and daisy invaded her senses and her fingers gripped the hem of the shirt. A month…why does it still smell like her? Alannah swallowed and forced her fingers to uncurl and release the fabric.
Be welcoming. Her mother’s voice rang in her ears, clear as a bell. Alannah drew in a breath in the hopes of soothing the ache in her chest. It didn’t work.
Yours is likely the last friendl
Her chest deflated as she released the breath.
A knock on the door resounded through the house. The floor underneath her feet expanded and creaked as if the house drew in its own breath to ready itself. Or perhaps she was imagining things. Another knock came. She wanted to ignore it. She wanted to climb underneath the covers until they went away. It would save her from having to pretend she was a hermit who owned a quaint home in the forest and being here was her choice and her choice alone. Maybe it would save them even if they didn’t know they needed saving.
The third knock came as she descended the stairs. Mr. Pinkus was still curled up in a ball. Nothing bothered him much anymore. Not even company. Alannah huffed in annoyance as she passed him.
Sunlight filtered through the clear cracked glass inlaid into the cherry wood door. She could see three amorphous blobs on the other side. Three. Fantastic. Too bad the house never informed her of how many beforehand. She only had two rooms prepared. The other rooms…well…she wasn’t ready to go in them yet. She hoped two were willing to share.
The brass doorknob was cool under her fingers. She heard excited voices on the other side. The door swung inward and she laid her eyes on her guests. They looked around her age—twenty-seven years—give or take. Their conversation ceased when they noticed the open door. They stared at her, appraising her as she was appraising them. Two of them looked so similar, she wondered if they were brothers. However, the longer she looked, she noticed their eyes were different. One set of cerulean blue and the other a deep brown that almost matched the color of her right eye. The woman didn’t look related. Dark blond hair piled on top of her head in a neat bun and dark green eyes darted back and forth between Alannah and the interior of the foyer.
Alannah stepped back. “Please come in,” she said, gesturing for them. She tried her best to sound cordial, but it sounded flat.
Her greeting either didn’t bother them or they didn’t hear her. They walked inside.
Alannah closed the door behind them but they hardly noticed as they looked around the room in awe. From the outside, the house could seem modest and small, but the floor swelled under her feet with a sense of pride in their shock. Alannah tapped her heel against the floor to remind the house to behave. She knew little about the human realm, but she knew enough to know that their houses were dead carcasses of wood and stone built upon the bones of those that came before. A hearth with grey stones that never grew cold took up most of the eastern wall. A plush emerald-green couch and two matching armchairs were arranged in a loose semi-circle in front of the hearth. A bookshelf filled to the brim with book and knickknacks—many gleaned from previous guests—sat to the left of the fireplace and the window seat took up most of the space to right of it. Behind the couch was a long table with a record player sitting atop of it. The records lined the shelf below. More things her family had kept over the years and Alannah’s personal favorite.
“I only have two rooms. I hope you’re alright with sharing,” she interrupted their gawking.
Three sets of eyes homed in on her.
“How did you know we were coming?” the woman questioned. “Did someone from the town call ahead?”
“There is no phone here.”
They laughed, believing she was joking. When her expression remained unchanged, the laughter tapered off. Nearly in unison, they reached into their pockets and produced a small handheld device. Alannah had seen them before. Although, they used to be bigger. Unfortunately, none of the guests ever left one behind so she never had the chance to look closely at one.
“No signal,” the blue-eyed man said, frowning.
“Weird,” the other two echoed.
Hope sparked in her chest. Maybe they would leave. Spare themselves. Alannah knew better. Their fate was sealed the moment they stepped into her home. Her hope withered further when a gleam entered their eyes. Excitement instead of disappointment. Alannah sighed inwardly. She nodded to the stairs. “I’ll show you to your rooms.”
She gave them no time to ask her any more questions. Turning her back to them, she led them up the stairs. When she reached the landing, she turned right. The freshly clean rooms were right across from each other. She opened the door to each of them and stepped back into the middle of the hall to allow them to explore. Not that there was much to explore. They were simple bedrooms. Same furnishings. A wooden bed—one covered with a green quilt and the other with a red one—and a dresser with an oval mirror attached. Nothing else. There was no point when the rooms were never occupied for long.
Alannah disappeared into the background. They were too fascinated with the “quaint” décor to notice her standing in the hallway. She cleared her throat to gain their attention once more. “The bathroom is the last door on the left,” –she pointed to it with her finger— “I’m sorry it’s the only one we have for guests. Breakfast will be in an hour. Midday meal is at noon and supper is at six. Feel free to roam the house and the grounds, but please remember this is my home. Some doors are locked for a reason.” They could try opening some of the doors, but they wouldn’t be successful. Although, she wouldn’t mind a reason to throw them out.
Leaving them upstairs, she made her way back down to the kitchen. She hoped they would give her an hour of peace before bombarding her with questions. Everyone who managed to find this place was curious about it.
Mr. Pinkus jumped down from the window seat and followed her into the kitchen. No doubt in a bid for second breakfast.
Alannah opened the fridge and sighed when the shelves were empty of what she needed. “Please don’t do this to me,” she grumbled and closed the door. She waited a moment, whispered a silent plea for the house to cooperate, and opened the door again. She sighed in relief. Eggs, bacon, sausage, milk. It was all there, sitting on the shelf for her.
Footsteps stomped back and forth and the ceiling creaked above her. Voices filtered through the floor as they moved about. It was strange to hear people in the house again, and to hear footsteps that didn’t belong to her or the cat.
“Do you need help?”
She didn’t hear anyone come down. But she turned, bowl in one hand and whisk in the other, to see who snuck up on her. It was one of the men. Brown eyes and brown hair. She didn’t know his name. She didn’t ask. She never asked. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his dark blue denim jeans. He wore a soft red jacket that was zipped closed.
“No, thank you,” she said, resuming her whisking of the pancake batter.
She expected her rejection to drive him from the kitchen. Instead, he removed his hands from his pockets and walked over to lean his elbows on the counter. Her eyes were drawn down. With her fingers tightening around the whisk, she fought the urge to smack his elbows. The thought nearly made her smile. Her elbows had seen plenty of spatulas over the years. If it wasn’t her mother, it was her grandmother.
“I didn’t catch your name,” he said.
“I didn’t give it.”
“How does this place get electricity?”
The sudden shift caught her off-guard and she stopped whisking. “I’m sorry?”
He tilted his head to the side. “This place, it’s pretty far out into the forest, but it has electricity and plumbing. How?”
“Is that so unusual?” she asked, setting the bowl down on the counter.
“For a place that seems off-the-grid? Yeah. I half-expected to find a dilapidated building and maybe an outhouse. But this is…” he trailed off and looked around the kitchen before his eyes settled on her once more. “Pretty.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re a very strange person.”
He grinned. “Thank you…” he gestured to her with his hand.
“Alannah.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Alannah,” he said before pointing to himself. “I’m Elliot.”
“Hello, Elliot.”
“You know, the way townsfolk described you, I expected an old hag—”
She raised an eyebrow.
“A few said you were a witch. I imagined…well, you know…”
“I don’t.”
“So, are you?”
“Am I what?”
He leaned forward. “A witch?” he whispered.
